Comments By Brandon Kitts

I gave up the house I was renting when I went OTR. When I take hometime I either stay in my truck or in a hotel. I didnt see a point in paying for a place to spend 1 weekend a month. I went through company training with a homeless army vet that decided to become a driver for a place to live.

Freight has slowed down for all fleets at Roehl. Last week they had 150 drivers without a load. I've been fortunate as my FM has a load waiting on me before I deliver the current one. I'm on hometime until tomorrow morning and she sent me a load Friday evening. A lot of our customers that have been open up to now are closing for a few weeks. A big customer for those of us on curtainside is Masonite Doors in Marshfield and they went on strike.

The good thing about curtainside is that I can haul our designated loads and most flatbed loads.

Just keep your head up it will get better.

I'm not with Crete but, my truck has an apu that runs hvac. I have. Switch I turn on when parked and when truck batteries get low it starts up and runs until they are charged.

I believe most companies have apu or epu on their trucks.

I had that backwards. I have an epu not an apu. Lol

I'm not with Crete but, my truck has an apu that runs hvac. I have. Switch I turn on when parked and when truck batteries get low it starts up and runs until they are charged.

I believe most companies have apu or epu on their trucks.

I asked my trainer last night since we don’t have it on our truck how do you check the brake lights on a trailer alone? I was taught many years ago to depress trailer parking brake, pull down the trolley bar, and walk back to ensure brake lights are working.

His answer: a chuckle and he reaches behind the seat and pulls out a small oak tree branch with a Y on one end that he cut long enough to put the Y on a cross bar of the seat and the flat ends depressed the brake pedal.

That my friends is just one item of what 35 years of driving experience will teach me. I think it falls under the category of “a truck driver always has to think on his toes and overcome obstacles on his own!”

My International has a light test button. I turn it on during pretrip and it cycles all the outside lights continuously until turned off.

Our trucks dont have the trolley brake levers either.

With flatbed and curtainside you will eat through gloves. I've got a $95 pair that lasted about as long as a cheap pair. Between bungee cords and straps sliding through your hands as you check them the gloves will get eaten.

Arizona 89 just south of Utah border. I stopped to check brakes before heading down mountain.

I just stay apprehensive at scale houses.

As long as I have a green light on the EZ Pass I will not be stopping at any Scale. I'm not falling for that trick. Lol

Even after you get comfortable with backing you will occasionally have bad days where the trailer doesnt seem to cooperate.

I was in Salt Lake City parked at a flying j for the night. Felt the truck rock but it just seemed like a windy night. Didnt even know it had been an earthquake until I heard it on the news radio.